Privatization gives the last laugh to for-profits

Undermining the common good not funny.

July 30, 2012: Paul Buchheit reports for Nation of Change that privatization usually has poor payoffs for the general public, raising costs for consumers and reducing revenue streams for public coffers. He notes that privatization can only work in the context of strict regulation, but goes on to say that it rarely benefits the delivery of essential public services. Buchheit demonstrates that in the US, privatization has adversely affected education, health care, banking, prisons, military, water and other utilities.

"The privatization of public goods and services turns basic human needs into products to buy and sell. That's more than a joke; it's an insult, it's a perversion. It generally benefits only a privileged group of businesspeople and their companies while increasing inequality and undermining the common good.

Various studies have identified the 'benefits' of privatization as profitability and productivity, efficiency, wider share ownership and good investment returns. These are business benefits. More balanced studies consider the effects on average people, who have paid into a long-established societal support system for their schools and emergency services, water and transportation systems, and eventually health care and retirement benefits…"

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